Intentions to Marry, 1879

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840391, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 560

District of Grey Quarter ending 31 March 1879 Registrar Tom Kenrick

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

21 January 1879

Alexander Gamble
Sarah Annie Elizabeth Jones

Alexander Gamble
Sarah Anne Elizabeth Jones
💍 1879/481

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Servant

31 years
21 years

No Town
No Town

12 years
6 months

Church of England, Hospital St., Greymouth

79/369

21 January 1879

Revd. G. T. H. Watkins, C of E

No	1
Date of Notice	21 January 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Gamble	Sarah Annie Elizabeth Jones
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Gamble	Sarah Anne Elizabeth Jones
	💍 1879/481
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Servant
Age	31 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	No Town	No Town
Length of Residence	12 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hospital St., Greymouth
Folio	79/369
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd. G. T. H. Watkins, C of E

24 January 1879

Alexander Brook Taylor
Margaret Simpson

Alexander Brooke Taylor
Margaret Simpson
💍 1879/492

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk
Dressmaker

27 years
21 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

18 months
6 years

Church of England, Hospital St., Greymouth

79/1370

24 January 1879

Revd. G. T. H. Watkins, C of E

No	2
Date of Notice	24 January 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Brook Taylor	Margaret Simpson
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Brooke Taylor	Margaret Simpson
	💍 1879/492
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk	Dressmaker
Age	27 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	18 months	6 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Hospital St., Greymouth
Folio	79/1370
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd. G. T. H. Watkins, C of E

11 February 1879

Joseph Carpenter
Mary Ann Kirkwood

Joseph Carpenter
Mary Ann Kirkwood
💍 1879/471

Bachelor
Spinster

Shoemaker

25 years
21 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

3 years
6 years

Private dwelling House of Mr. Kirkwood, Murray Street, Greymouth

79/366

11 February 1879

Revd. H. Bull, Wes

No	3
Date of Notice	11 February 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Carpenter	Mary Ann Kirkwood
	💍 1879/471
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shoemaker
Age	25 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	3 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Private dwelling House of Mr. Kirkwood, Murray Street, Greymouth
Folio	79/366
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd. H. Bull, Wes

13 February 1879

Edward Keating
Mary Conway

Edward Keating
Mary Conway
💍 1879/501

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor
Servant

20 years
22 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

5 years
12 months

Roman Catholic Chapel, Arney St., Greymouth

79/374

13 February 1879

Revd. Father J. M. Ecuyer, R C

No	4
Date of Notice	13 February 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Keating	Mary Conway
	💍 1879/501
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor	Servant
Age	20 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	5 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel, Arney St., Greymouth
Folio	79/374
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd. Father J. M. Ecuyer, R C

24 February 1879

Arthur William Lew
Emily Mary Gardiner
(Maiden name) Way

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Widow

Clerk
None

34 years
26 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

9 years
3 years

Registrars Office, Greymouth

24 February 1879

Tom Kenrick, Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	24 February 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur William Lew	Emily Mary Gardiner (Maiden name) Way
BDM Match (5%)
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Clerk	None
Age	34 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	9 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Greymouth
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1879
Officiating Minister	Tom Kenrick, Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).